


String Theory

by monokowritesstuff



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Red String of Fate, Slow Burn, like the slowest of burn that one could possibly get; smoldering even, tags will be updated as we go bc this is a 3am idea fic lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monokowritesstuff/pseuds/monokowritesstuff
Summary: Akira can see Red Strings of Fate, but he’s lost all faith in love. After being shipped off to Tokyo for a crime he didn’t commit, his own string begins to loosen its slack, leading him down a path of nothing but dread.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Sakamoto Ryuji, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> god okay I know I have like 6 in progress fics rn but this idea had me struck dead in the middle of the night and writing is my coping mechanism yall I— anyway this is a bit of a shakeup on the red string of fate trope because I’m a fuckin sucker for it. For those wondering why it’s pegoryu and not shukita like Watercolor Heart... yes 💚 persona has made me into a multishipper and I’m not ashamed lmaoooo  
> Also it’s easier for me to project onto pegoryu bc........ me and Ryuji Sakamoto are The Same *blows him a kiss* Anyway. That’s enough rambling from me. This will actually deadass update schedule. Every Sunday. Look forward to it; consistency has never been my strong suit and I’m planning to change that.

Akira can see Red Strings of Fate. Ever since he was a young child, he’s seen them, crossing and tangling and getting knotted up in things. It was fun at first; seeing some strings loop low when their owners got close brought him a special kind of joy. It made him excited to find the other side of his string.

That all came screeching to a halt when he saw the string between his parents break. It had always been thinner than most, but seeing it fray and snap completely made his heart sink.

That was the day Akira Kurusu stopped believing in love. 

His parents, the people he’d expected to stay together forever, broke their string. They defied fate in the worst way possible. The myth held firm that the string was unbreakable, no matter how far away two partners got. Clearly, it didn’t account for emotional distance.

What sickened him the most was how they didn’t change at all. There was no coldness, no bitter words, just the same old Mr. and Mrs. Kurusu that had always been. Even when he got put on probation and shipped off, his dad slipped his hand in his mother’s after they hugged him goodbye. 

It baffled Akira back when it happened, and it baffled him now as he held his messenger bag to his chest, trying to drown out the chatter of the girls nearby gossiping about the latest incident in Tokyo. He couldn’t help but glance at the string tied around his pinky; he loathed even acknowledging his existence, but he had nothing better to do. It seemed to be growing more and more loose as the train sped him away from Inaba.

For the better half of his life, he’d been waiting for this to happen. But now that it was, after seeing what he had, Akira was terrified.

What if he finds love and he loses it? What if his string breaks too? What if he loses someone really special? All these questions rattled throughout his head, leaving him all but trembling. This is why he hated looking at his own string. It brought him nothing but strife.

He glanced up over his bag, peeking at the strings that hung all about the train. Two of the gossiping girls were tied to each other, and one had a string so taut that it almost looked sharp. Poor girl would probably be searching for a while. Everyone else on the train had unordinary strings, but in each and every one, Akira saw nothing but the possibility of grief. What started as a blessing had turned into a curse.

He let out a sigh of relief as the train came to a crawling stop. Maybe the strings would get less dense from here.

* * *

Reaching his new home took entirely too long. Shibuya was larger than life, some weird app had appeared on his phone, and he kept getting lost and tangled up in the sheer amount of side streets and alleyways that made up Yongen-Jaya. It didn’t help that the place he was supposed to be going was some tucked away cafe. 

Standing in front of the door, he took a moment to steel his nerves. This would be his first day in a completely new place. Life would be different, and he had to learn to adjust quickly. String be damned, he had to grasp the city life by the horns or it would eat him alive. The last thing he wanted was to be swallowed up by a concrete jungle.

Taking in one last deep breath, Akira pushed open the door.

The first thing that hit him was the smell of coffee. Whatever blend this cafe used, it was fragrant as hell, and it tickled Akira’s nostrils as he stepped inside. The second thing was an older man chatting away with one of the customers, filling out a crossword idly as he spoke. Was that Sakura-san? He didn’t seem to notice Akira at all. The third was how  _ small _ the space was. He was supposed to be living here for a year? There was barely space for the bar, let alone a whole person to sleep. 

“Oh, right.” the crossword man finally acknowledged him, putting the book behind him with a sigh. Akira couldn’t stop his eyes from glancing at his pinky as his hand moved, and to his surprise, the string was tied off. It didn’t lead anywhere, nor did it show any signs of breakage; it just knotted around his finger in a neat little pair of bunny ear loops. Akira had never seen anything like it before. “They did say that was today.”

The two elderly customers stood shortly after the man did, making passing remarks about the same accidents that the girls were gossiping about on their way out of the door. It made Akira a little nervous. Was that a typical thing that happened in the city?

“...Four hours for just a single cup of joe,” crossword man grumbled, finally turning to give Akira his full attention. “So, you’re Akira?”

“Please take care of me.” he replied with a bow. Sakura or not, impressions were important, and Akira felt that he was starting off on the wrong foot by staring.

“I’m Sojiro Sakura. You’ll be in my custody over the next year. I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you’re the one, huh?”

Sojiro muttered something to himself about his parents and a customer, then beckoned for Akira to follow, wasting no time for pleasantries. This was the man that would be looking after him for the next year. Somehow, this is what he expected. Of course a supposed delinquent like him would be stationed with a hard edged man who’s words cut like glass. Living here would cut him down to size. That’s what his parents had hoped, anyway.

There were stairs in the back of the cafe, leading to an attic of some sort. It was cluttered to all hell and filled with dust, and there was a lumpy looking bed pushed up against the window. Akira just barely heard Sojiro explain that this is where he’d be staying for the year before zoning out completely, already planning the big clean up job he had ahead of him. His caretaker’s words flew right over his head, save for his warning about staying out of trouble. It stung just a little, being treated like a burden, but Akira figured he wouldn’t have too many problems with that. He’d had enough trouble for a lifetime back home. Maybe this’d be a new start.

“Your luggage arrived yesterday,” Sojiro finished, tilting his head in its general direction. “I put them over there.”

And with that, he left. The tinkling bells on the cafe door rang hollow in Akira’s mind, and it made him glance at his string once more.

This was going to be the longest year of his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Akira’s journey to his first day at Shujin Academy was hell.

Sojiro fed him before he left, which was pretty nice (surprisingly, coffee and curry went well together? Or, at least, they did with the way Sojiro made both), but that was where the good times ended.

There was an accident yesterday (seemingly a part of a string of similar incidents that had been happening as of late) that had thrown the train schedules into chaos, with trains coming and going way later than they should have. Akira found himself barely squeezing onto the ones that did come at a decent time, and squeezing was an  _ understatement _ . People were packed onto the trains like sardines, forcing him to stand with his shoulder pressed into the train doors the entire ride. He’d heard the rumors about Tokyo subways, but this was way worse than Akira could have ever imagined. 

Of course, where there were lots of people, there were lots of strings.

They littered the floors and were draped over everything like cheap Christmas decorations, swaying with the movements of the train and its occupants. There were some strings even wrapped tightly around peoples’ necks, and they were none the wiser. It made Akira sick to his stomach to look at. He clenched his arms tightly around his bag, fighting down the urge to look at his own string. 

He didn’t care. 

He didn’t want to know. 

Don’t look at it.

Don’t give yourself hope.

His thoughts threatened to swallow him whole, until the sweet reprieve of the subway announcer’s voice broke through his haze, repeating the phrase he’d been waiting to hear:

_ “Shibuya Station. This is Shibuya Station. _ ”

It was a short lived relief, but one he welcomed with open arms. 

Looking for the Ginza line was hard, but Akira didn’t mind having to stall for time. He wasn’t looking forward to being pressed up against a bunch of strangers again, nor was he jumping for joy at the thought of having a peek into their love lives. Eventually, he figured out that following the yellow line that snaked around the train station would lead him where he needed to go, prompting him to let out a sigh of relief. Maybe today would get better, even if only a little bit.

And then it began to rain. Because of course it did. It was completely in line with every other small disaster that happened today.

Akira found some respite underneath an awning, attempting to once more find his way to school. The weird app he’d found the day before yesterday had come back, though, and something in the area was making it chime every so often. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it, nor did he really want to. He had enough things to worry about. 

Someone had joined him underneath the awning; a pretty girl with blonde pigtails and bright blue eyes, looking just as lost and wistful as he did. Was she a transfer too?

She glanced at him and smiled, striking him with the chilling realisation that he’d been staring for a while. Akira looked away quickly, trying to staunch the blush that was rising to his cheeks. No way. There was no way in hell. He took a small peek at her pinky finger, and to his surprise, her string led off in a completely different direction. He was safe, for now. 

In the time that it took for Akira to calm his racing heart down, a car had pulled up, and out of it leaned a man with the largest chin Akira had ever seen. 

“Good morning,” he called to the girl, a not-so-subtle smirk on his face. “You want me to give you a ride to school? You’re gonna be late.”

“Um, sure. Thank you.” the girl faked a smile and got into his car, her head bowed low.

“Do you need a lift too?” 

Everything about the man screamed creep. Especially with the way the girl’s face fell as she got into his car. Akira decided he wasn’t going to let himself get wrapped up in any more mess today, and refused as politely as he could. The man shrugged, rolled up his window, and sped off, sending a cascade of water and cherry blossom petals into the air. Akira let go of a breath he didn’t even know he was holding, and rubbed his face a little. What a day.

Before he could process what had just happened, a yellow blur ran past him, shouting profanities all the while. 

“Damn it! Screw that pervert teacher!” he huffed, sliding to a stop on the wet pavement. 

“Pervert teacher?” Akira mused, partially to himself and partially to the blur. Looks like his intuition was right.

The boy turned around and furrowed his brows, making Akira jump a little. He was blonde too, but very clearly a bottle blonde; his hair was starting to grow back black at the roots, and by the looks of things he’d left his sideburns black on purpose. 

“What d’you want?” he growled, stepping into Akira’s personal space. Terror had taken root in the pit of his stomach, alongside another emotion that he couldn’t quite place. “You plannin’ on rattin’ me out to Kamoshida?” 

“W-What do you mean? Kamoshida?” Akira held up his hands nervously, unable to look the vulgar boy in the eye.

“...Huh? In that car just now. It was Kamoshida.” the boy mumbled something about castles and kings, turning his glare to the road next to him. Needless to say, Akira had no idea what he was talking about. “You don’t know Kamoshida? Are you for real? You’re from Shujin, right?”

“I just transferred here a few days ago,” he replied quietly, the fear in his heart doubling down. “Today’s my first day.”

“Oh, no wonder you don’t know him. Sorry for grillin’ ya.” the boy seemed to relax, giving Akira an easy smile as he turned away and started walking. “This rain ain’t too bad. Better get goin’ before we’re late.”

As he turned, Akira thought he saw a loose red string trailing out of the boy’s pocket. He chose to ignore it. It was none of his business if it was one of those strings, for starters, and for some reason his temples had taken up a horrendous throbbing that didn’t feel like it was going to go away soon. 

* * *

They walked for quite some time together, ducking through alleyways and dodging mud puddles left and right. The blonde boy wasn’t much for conversation, but Akira didn’t blame him one bit. Based on his body language, today was a shitty day for him too. At least they had that in common.

That, and the shock they felt when they happened upon “Shujin”.

It wasn’t the school that Akira had seen on his preliminary visit yesterday anymore. No, it had transformed into an almost monstrously large castle, looming over him and the other boy. All the signs and banners were still there, just hanging from large turrets instead of… anything that one would find in a normal school. For a second, Akira thought he was dreaming. Weird dreams had added themselves to the new things that were happening to him since he got to Tokyo, after all. There was only one way to prove it, though. He glanced at the boy’s pocket, and sure enough, there was a red string wrapped around his finger. Akira let out a silent sigh of relief. He wasn’t dreaming.

Or, so he thought. He was only supposed to take a glance, but much to his horror, he let his eyes wander up the string’s length, leading him right back to his own hand. The slack between them was so loose that it had begun to loop in piles on the floor.

Something inside of Akira shattered. God damn it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pros of having an update schedule: consistency, not keeping your readers waiting, actual good story flow
> 
> cons of having an update schedule: finishing chapters early and being way too excited to release them but having to wait,
> 
> I hope y’all enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing :>

**Author's Note:**

> I’ll be periodically stealing dialogue straight from the game, especially for the first few chapters. Stuff will branch off eventually though. Trust me.


End file.
